TELUGU RATIONALIST AND BANGLA RATIONALIST DISCUSSION FORUM

Rationalist International is pleased to announce the formation of new internet based forum for rationalists from two different regions - Telugu Rationalist Discussion Forum for Rationalists from Andhra Pradesh and Bangla Rationalist Discussion Forum for Rationalists from West Bengal and Bangladesh. Forum members can participate in email discussions. To join Telugu Rationalist Discussion Forum, please send a blank mail to Telugu_Rationalist-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and to join Bangla Rationalist Discussion Group, please send a blank mail Bangla_Rationalist-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Iran: Prof. Aghajari sentenced to five years in prison

Prof. Sayyed Hashem Aghajari, progressive Iranian historian and prominent regime critic, has been sentenced to five years in prison and banned from teaching and from holding public offices for additional five years. A court in Tehran held him guilty of "insulting religious sanctities" in a public speech held in Hamedan in 2002. Prof. Aghajari denies any insult to religion. His lawyer announced he will appeal against the judgement.

The ruling was passed on 20 July in a new round of the blasphemy trial that has shaken the country. After his Hamedan speech, in which he challenged the right of the clergy to rule Iran, Prof. Aghajari had been twice sentenced to death by a provincial court. For more than one and a half years, the invalid war veteran was on the death row in Tehran's Evin prison, while the brutal attempt to silence him fueled powerful and long lasting protest in Iran and caused the government embarrassment abroad.

Finally, judiciary and government backed down. In an attempt to take the air out of the protest movement, the Supreme Court overturned the death sentence on 1st June and ordered total reexamination of the case by a Tehran court. All charges, which could lead to death penalty, were now dropped. According to the newly framed charges, the court decided for the maximum punishment of five years prison, but suspended two years. After accounting the two years already spent in Evin jail, there will be one year left. Prof. Aghajari was granted bail while launching an appeal with the Supreme Court. He would be released against one billion Rials ($117,000).

After the mounting thread of execution, Prof. Aghajari's supporters feel relieved about the outcome of the new trial, but refuse to accept compromises. The case is a grave violation of Freedom of Speech. The rulers have misused the judiciary to try and silence a powerful critic, said a representative of the Iranian rationalist organization Group RA, which demands a "first-class acquittal" without any restrictions for Prof. Aghajari and his reinstatement into his former positions. [See also reports in Bulletin # 106, # 108, # 124, # 127, click here for the text of the Hamedan speech]

Nigeria: Dangerous defamation campaign against atheists

Islam Online, an international Islamic news and belief website, is spreading a highly misguiding and dangerous report from Nigeria's capital Abuja, which could stir hatred and violence against atheists in Nigeria. Africa's most populous state is in the grip of bloody communal civil wars that have cost thousands of lives during recent years.

The "report" claims that nine Nigerian atheists, arrested for attacking peaceful worshippers in a mosque in Abuja on 18 July "with knives and axes", "will appear in Osun state Supreme Court on Wednesday on charges of public disorder, damaging public property, breaching freedom of religion and sparking a sectarian sedition." Further confusing and provoking Muslim readers, the article claims that "atheist cults" backed by an "American-Christian-atheist coalition" have already orchestrated several such attacks in the past and were responsible for killings and planned assassinations of Muslims in Nigeria.

"This is a calculated attempt to blackmail Nigerian atheists and portray them as violent", said Leo Igwe, executive secretary of the Nigerian Humanist Movement (NHM), an alliance of atheists, rationalists and humanists in Nigeria. The NHM is since long a thorn in the side of Islamic hard-liners, as it provides legal support to those accused of blasphemy or adultery under Sharia. Although national law is based on a combination of traditional law and English common law, the predominantly Muslim northern states of Nigeria have established Sharia.

"We are shocked by the high level misrepresentation of history", said Leo Igwe, "and we want to state categorically that there are no atheist cults in Nigeria and there has never been any incident of clashes or killings by atheists in the history of Nigeria. Instead Nigeria has a bloody history of clashes between Muslims and Muslims, Muslims and Christians, Muslims and animists, Christians and Christians, Christians and Muslims, Christians and animists.And in all cases of religious bloodletting in the country, atheists have been victims! We are therefore urging the Islam Online correspondent in Abuja to desist from this campaign of calumny, misinformation and misrepresentation."